The Trouble with Summer

We finished our Spring semester a little over a week ago. Graduation came and went… We had our final, full faculty meeting of the academic year. Grades were submitted.

Summer is Here (Sort of)

My mind and body haven't made the shift over to summertime yet. Part of that is because I still have some work-related commitments to attend to… An academic retreat, some departmental hiring decisions meetings, and participation in a visit from an external reviewer.

Part of my not being entirely sure what season I'm in is because it can be difficult to shift into an entirely new way of working.

I'm writing a book this summer. My time is being steered by Pacemaker, a writing word-count web service, as well as a time tracker called Timing that watches what I do on the computer (and even when I leave the computer's side) and asks me to account for that time. But, I haven't quite gotten in a groove yet that has me at my most productive. I find myself looking at clutter that didn't bother me during the academic year, but has me convinced that I ought to overhaul our pantry, or perhaps re-organize my entire home office.

Timing App gives an overview of how my time is spent on and off the computer.

By no means am I complaining. I find such joy in teaching and am already missing the pace of the semester. Sometimes.

To teach, we must believe in the potential of each person in the room. Unwaveringly. This is not to say we don’t get to have our bad days, our off days, the days when we really can’t stand to talk to another student or plan another lesson. But it does mean that we teach for a reason, and that reason lies in what lies in the heart of a student. What lay in our hearts when we were students. Hope despair melancholy desire passion hunger confusion. All the things it takes to learn to walk. All the things it takes to learn to do anything. All the things it takes to live in Los Angeles, or to love someone who is hard to love.” – Sean Michael Morris

It wouldn't be a book that I would recommend as a starting point for someone in their first year or two of teaching. However, after 14 years of teaching, and me having read only 20% of the book, I'm already being challenged in important ways.

The other trouble with summer is that there's always so much I want to do that it is easy to become stuck in the thinking of the possibilities phase. I'm still contemplating if I'll open an account on Patreon to try to find supporters of the podcast to cover some of the associated expenses for producing the show (web and podcast hosting, editing and production costs).

There have also been inquiries about transcripts over the years. If I could get enough supporters to cover some of the foundational costs of the podcast, it would be a good time to start including transcripts with each episode. That would only be if there was an expressed need for them that was compelling enough that people would want to give, financially, to support that effort.

The transcripts can also be produced as something richer than plain text. I then used Camtasia to add a graphic of the logo, along with the audio file, together into a single .MP4 file and uploaded it to YouTube. Trint allows you to export a transcript in what is called .SRT format, which is one of the ways to import closed captioning into YouTube. If you view episode #150 on YouTube and click the button to view the CC (closed captioning), you'll see the transcript is included there, and has the correct timing settings without me having to do anything. It was pretty remarkable.

What are your plans for summer, or do you even get to take a break at all during this season?

Bonni Stachowiak

Bonni is an Associate Professor of Business and Management at a small, private university in Southern California. She's been teaching in higher ed for over a decade, now, and constantly thinks about teaching while she's driving, brushing her teeth, and pretty much throughout most days.
Bonni started the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast in June of 2014 and has aired a podcast episode every week, since. She thrives on teaching and learning and is grateful for this community of people who are passionate about the same thing.

Comments

We haven’t hit summer yet. We have finals this week, awards ceremonies next week, and commencement June 3.

As I transition from academic year to summer – even though I teach in the summer and have occasional responsibilities due to the non-faculty part of my role – I capture the ideas that flit in my consciousness of things I might want to get done this summer. I do this all year. Then, when I have completed prep for summer classes next week, I have a strategic planning day with myself to consider what I would like to accomplish this summer. I include leisure, work, family, friends, theater and music, etc. as well as cleaning the pantry and other chores that are visible as my eyes are cleared of deadlines.

That sounds like such a wonderful practice, Susan. Robert Talbert wrote recently about his Trimesterly Review process and it sounds similar to yours. I think I’m done with annual goals and would do better planning for semester-summer-semester, just based on how my years are structured.